<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Dumpy @ Jun 20 2008, 09:46 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (#1_Yinka_Dare_Fan @ Jun 20 2008, 09:40 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I think the firing had a lot to do with it.</div>
maybe . . . but even if it did, it further exemplifies that he's probably not ready for the NBA. He's coming off an inconsistent freshman year where a coaching change affected his mental makeup? You think he is ready to play 80 games, benched for long stretches, and lambasted in the press? You take him, you are paying him to develop for the entire length of his rookie contract . . . then he leaves. You want a guy who doesn't share the ball, commits a ton of turnovers, shoots every time he gets it, often throwing up ridiculous three-point attempts that don't even hit the rim?
Just give me Westbrook or Gallinari, please. And Hibbert at #21.
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I think Gordon will be an excellent NBA player and the Nets would be pretty lucky if Gordon slipped to them. He did slip towards the end of last season, but there are a few reasons for this. The most obvious was his wrist injury. This injury will effect a shooter/ball handler the most. The fact of the matter is prior to the injury, Gordon was shooting well over 43% (it was actually around 50%) and over 40% from downtown. The coaching change was a bigger issue than you think. To quote VC: "I don't think you understand what a coach's identity is to a major college basketball program like Indiana. You change the coaching staff, and you change the team completely. It's not like the NBA where coaches change every other week. In the NCAA, a coach is a team's rock. They define the style the team plays, the type of players that suit up, the team's attitude, etc. Just look at what guys like Tom Izzo and Mark Few do to the players they recruit."
At the end of day, Gordon is 2-3 inches away from being a lock for the top 3 in the draft. The lack of height really doesn't matter though since he has a 6'9 wingspan and a 40 inch vertical. Add that to a rock-solid 220 pounds of muscle (no homo), and you have a player able to compete at a high level on both ends of the floor. And despite his low FG% you have to be intrigued by his ability to get to the basket. He shot 9 free throws per game, which is almost double the amount of times someone like Mayo gets to the line. I think way too much stock is put into Gordon's latter half of the year. He's still a freshman who was asked to lead his team from the gate, and he did a pretty good job considering the circumstances. He's as athletic as any player in the draft and has as good a work ethic. At the very worst, he'll be a decent starter in this league. Historically, those are the type of players the 10th picks pan out to be anyway.